Retailers drop due to trade concerns

Companies / 15 January 2013, 2:30pm

Photo: Leon Nicholas

Retailer Mr Price (MPC) was trading more than 5% lower at noon on Tuesday and clothing company Foschini (TFG) gave back more than 4%‚ due to negative retail sector sentiment after retailer Shoprite released a weaker than expected trading update on Monday.

At 12.28pm local time Mr Price was trading 5.06% lower at R126.51 and Foschini (TFG) was down 4.83% at R124.89.

“Shoprite released quite a disappointing sales update for the 6 months to December on Monday‚ raising concerns that the consumer is under pressure. Clothing retailers are all releasing sales updates this week with Mr Price releasing its update on Thursday. The general sentiment is down and the market is thinking maybe consumer spend will decrease more. This comes after the retail sector has done well in the last two years or so‚” an analyst said. - I-Net Bridge